NIGERIA: MODERN-DAY ‘JOB’ PERSEVERES DESPITE TRAUMATIC LOSS.
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How do you carry on after losing your wife, parents and all but one of your children – not to mention your home and all your possessions – in one brutal attack on your community?
It doesn’t bear thinking about, and thankfully we in the UK do not face that threat. However, it is all too common in northern and central Nigeria where for two decades Islamist terrorists such as Boko Haram and now more recently militant Fulani herdsmen have been terrorising Christians.
For Luka Abba, a Christian from the southern part of Kaduna state in northwest Nigeria there is no choice but to keep going for the sake of his one surviving child, Magnificent, who is living with the physical trauma of having been shot in the mouth.
Somehow the boy survived the raid in February 2022 in which his siblings, mother and grandparents were killed but he lives with the consequences of the violence: when we met him he was awaiting further surgery. (At the time of writing, our partner had been trying to secure the necessary treatment but it is either too expensive or not easily available in Nigeria.)
‘The attack started on my house!’
Luka, a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) and a resident of Kagoro village in the Kaura local government area, described what happened that evening in February 2022; how he had gone for a stroll with others from the congregation when the attack occurred.
‘We went out and left our families at home but before we knew it we started hearing gunshots. When we called home we heard that it was my community that was under attack – and the attack had started on my house!
‘Fulani herdsmen came and surrounded our community with their pick-up trucks and motorbikes. They surrounded my compound and started firing. (We stay in the same compound with different houses as an extended family.) They killed my wife and my children, burnt my father to ashes and killed my mother.
‘And then destroyed everything because I was into farming – ginger farming production.’
Luka is a major ginger grower in the community and even provided loans to empower local small business owners.
When he arrived home he discovered exactly what had happened to his family. Only Magnificent had survived but he was in desperate need of medical attention.
Luka picked up his son and carried him on his back to the nearest clinic – an ECWA dispensary where the boy received first aid – but ‘his facial injuries were beyond what they could medically handle’.
While there Luka was told that animals had started to tamper with the dead bodies of his family, which he had had to leave in the village. Eventually he was able to find someone to help him move the corpses to a hospital mortuary.
Magnificent remains under strict medical supervisionMeanwhile Magnificent was referred to the national hospital in the capital, Abuja, but medical staff there said that his injuries were too severe and could not be treated in Nigeria.
‘They asked if I had money to fly out with the boy but I had nothing. Everything had been destroyed. Even now I haven’t reactivated my bank accounts because all my documents and information were burnt. I didn’t have enough money.
‘As God would have it, though, I managed to get the money and we saw the consultant who said we couldn’t stay in the national hospital because it was too expensive. He knew that I had been through a lot and promised to look for another hospital in his capacity as a consultant.’
Eventually he referred Magnificent to the Federal Medical Centre in Nasarawa state, where the surgery took place. The doctor was able to carry out the operation by connecting online for guidance from colleagues overseas.
Today Magnificent remains under strict medical supervision. He has facial disfigurement and his mouth has to be wired up until there has been sufficient healing. If the wires cannot be removed they will need to be serviced and cleaned regularly to prevent infection.
‘Recently we went back for a check-up and they asked us to prepare so they can perform [more] surgery. There were so many complications including the skin around his mouth being deformed.’
‘Everybody was traumatised’
On top of having to care for his son, Luka is dealing with his own trauma from that terrible night in which a number of communities were attacked and around 30 people killed. Thankfully Release International’s partner, Stefanos Foundation, has been able to help him practically with clothing, food and accommodation as well as providing trauma counselling.
As I speak to Luka it’s clear that there is no doubt in his mind that the Fulani attacks were religiously motivated.
‘It is an Islamic agenda because it is only Christians who were killed and churches burnt. If they find a Muslim house within the community they will not touch it – and they will not touch any of their families. They allow the Muslims to leave and attack the Christians.
‘They claim that the land in the communities is for them to graze their cows on so they are asking the farmers to leave the communities for them to be grazing there, which of course the people and the communities don’t accept.’
After the attack on Kagoro, the villagers fled to a camp for the internally displaced. ‘Everybody was traumatised,’ said Luka.
Like other believers the events of that night had a huge impact on his faith; he questioned how God could have allowed this to happen to His children.
‘I began to wonder but the story that kept me, that helped me the most, was the story of Job, and I later named myself “Job of the Millennium” because of what happened to me. I came to a point where I reminded myself that I didn’t come into this world with anything, but, if I can touch anyone’s life while I am here and help them, that is what I must do. I believe that is why God spared my life.’
Inevitably Luka struggles with his feelings towards those responsible for killing his wife, Nancy, his children Sofia and Hope and his parents as well as injuring Magnificent, who was six years old at the time.
‘The pain is there. Left to myself and if I did not have a faith I would say these people should be destroyed – they are not worthy to live because they are like evil monsters. But as a Christian who reads the Bible I have to turn to Scripture which helps me overcome these thoughts. What I tell myself is: “May the will of God be done over their lives because I can’t give God direction over that.”’
He asks for prayer that God would intervene in Nigeria: ‘Pray about what we are facing and passing through in Nigeria – and for me and my surviving son personally. Pray that God provides where there is no way for us to take care of our loved ones, and that God would restore peace to the country.’
All photos © Release International 2025
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